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Monday February 23

Parents with young children now have a new option for tablet-based entertainment, as Google on Monday officially unveiled YouTube Kids, a new app for the video sharing site focused on enabling children to discover content for themselves.

Update: The stock closed at another all-time high of $133.00, with $761 billion market cap.

Despite being the largest company in the world ever by market cap, Apple’s stock price continues to climb upwards. Today, it hit a new all time high of $130.75, with a market cap of almost $760 billion dollars, at time of writing. This represents a 0.96% gain over the stock’s market open.

Many investors have questioned whether Apple’s immense size means that growth opportunities are now almost statistical impossibilities. However, Cook dismissed theses concerns at the Goldman Sachs conference saying ‘I don’t...

Google just announced that its new YouTube Kids app is available for both iOS and Android devices starting today. The new app for kids is the first of its kind for Google, but the launch follows reports that Google was preparing kid-friendly versions of YouTube, Chrome, Search and other apps.

Like most parents, I love helping my kids learn more about something they’re interested in. For example, right now, I spend a lot of time on YouTube with my 3-year-old son, who loves watching videos of car washes, Super Simple Songs, and about the universe. We’re not the only ones: Families worldwide are watching millions of videos on...

Despite being listed as a partner company on Apple’s CarPlay page, Toyota currently has “no plans to adopt [...] CarPlay in the United States,” according to an article from The New York Times. The report mostly examines how Google and Apple are vying to develop the best in-car dashboard systems. John Hanson, the national manager of Toyota’s advanced technology communications, noted that the company is in frequent talks with…

Today in iLounge Deals we’re offering the Large ilumi LED Smartbulb for only $89. Now available in a larger size, the ilumi LED Smartbulb gives your overhead lighting a boost with a free app that allows you to adjust the color and brightness of your lighting or run built-in programs for cool new lighting experiences. The larger size is designed with overhead, recessed, can or track lighting in mind, and you can sync the light to pulse with the…

Turns out Lenovo preloaded their laptops with adware that will intercept all your secure connections, and allow criminals to do it, too.

After investigating the Lenovo incident we found out that many other softwares – like some Parental Controls or security packages – do things even worse for your security. This test attempts to detect them all.

stephendavion writes Amid deeper investigations into how Apple may be using its operations in Ireland as a means for tax avoidance on tens of billions of dollars in profit, the iPhone maker has announced that it will spend nearly $2 billion (€1.7 billion) to develop two new 100% renewable energy data centers in Europe. The centers — which will use wind power and other green fuel sources — will be located in Athenry, Ireland, and Viborg, Denmark. Apple said that they will power services such as apps in the App Store, Siri and iMessage. Both locations will run on 100 percent renewable energy and Apple said they will have the 'lowest environmental impact' of its data centers thus far. It will also be following in the footsteps of companies like Facebook, which has also built sustainable data center operations out in Europe.

stephendavion writes Amid deeper investigations into how Apple may be using its operations in Ireland as a means for tax avoidance on tens of billions of dollars in profit, the iPhone maker has announced that it will spend nearly $2 billion (€1.7 billion) to develop two new 100% renewable energy data centers in Europe. The centers — which will use wind power and other green fuel sources — will be located in Athenry, Ireland, and Viborg, Denmark. Apple said that they will power services such as apps in the App Store, Siri and iMessage. Both locations will run on 100 percent renewable energy and Apple said they will have the 'lowest environmental impact' of its data centers thus far. It will also be following in the footsteps of companies like Facebook, which has also built sustainable data center operations out in Europe.

AT&T is planning to expand its GigaPower service in Kansas City. But the company says that unless you pay an extra $29 per month, it will scan your Web traffic to sell to advertisers. Gigaom's Stacey Higginbotham investigated and found that AT&T's privacy offer can actually cost up to $66 per month, depending on package. AT&T also makes the private plan difficult to find on its Web site.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Adobe’s seminal Photoshop app is now 25 years old, and Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times looks at how Adobe is trying to keep it relevant. Adobe’s switch from selling Photoshop to offering it as a monthly subscription is one way the company hopes to bring it to more people, though so far, it has led to plummeting revenues. Adobe is also planning to split Photoshop into a number of smaller apps. Regardless of how Adobe’s plans pan out, it’s unlikely photographers will return to the darkrooms that Photoshop replaced.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take...

Adobe’s seminal Photoshop app is now 25 years old, and Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times looks at how Adobe is trying to keep it relevant. Adobe’s switch from selling Photoshop to offering it as a monthly subscription is one way the company hopes to bring it to more people, though so far, it has led to lower revenues. Adobe is also planning to split Photoshop into a number of smaller apps. Regardless of how Adobe’s plans pan out, photographers will never return to the darkrooms that Photoshop replaced.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders...

A team of biomedical engineers at Columbia University has developed an iPhone dongle costing just $34 that can conduct HIV tests with similar accuracy to ‘gold standard’ laboratory equipment costing over $18,000. The test, which also detects syphilis, takes just 15 minutes to run …

Apple today announced that it plans to build its first two data centers in Europe to host iCloud, iTunes and other online services. Located in Ireland and Denmark, these facilities will be powered by 100 percent renewable energy.

“We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “This significant new investment represents Apple’s biggest project in Europe to date. We’re thrilled to be expanding our operations, creating hundreds of local jobs and introducing some of our most advanced green building designs yet.”

— Apple PR

Our take on the news:

Apple is expanding its global reach while continuing to innovate in many areas beyond the iPhone, iPad and Mac. With increasing revenue coming from countries...

Apple got permission from Martin Scorsese to use excerpts from his NYU Tisch School of the Arts commencement speech, given last year, in a new “Make a film with iPad” ad they ran during the Oscars broadcast.

Update: The image has been removed and replaced with the below image of an actual pebble… Oops?

We told you last week that Pebble is likely about to announce the next-generation of its smartwatch, featuring a thinner design, a color e-paper-like display, and a revamped OS. Now, thanks to an image hosted on Pebble’s own servers, we have a look at a device with a physical appearance matching the device we described. The device looks to have a larger bezel, as well as buttons that are smaller compared to its predecessor.

John Hanson, the national manager of Toyota’s advanced technology communications, said while the company talked frequently with both Google and Apple, it currently had no plans to adopt Android Auto or CarPlay in the United States.

“We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions,” Mr. Hanson said.

Toyota’s backtracking began last year, when the company posted a statement on its UK blog that CarPlay would be...

We've seen a lot of speculation this week on the Apple car -- everything from Apple building its own car from scratch to its buying or merging with Tesla. Like many, I think the best path would be an Apple/Tesla combination, but since I doubt Tim would want to work for Musk or Musk for Tim, the only real option would be an office of the CEO for both firms. Elon would be the visionary, taking Jobs' old spot, and Cook would be in charge of execution. That's something he has done exceptionally well at Apple, and Tesla could use some help with it.

Apple® today announced a €1.7 billion plan to build and operate two data centres in Europe, each powered by 100 percent renewable energy. The facilities, located in County Galway, Ireland, and Denmark’s central Jutland, will power Apple’s online services including the iTunes Store®, App Store℠, iMessage®, Maps and Siri® for customers across Europe.

Not only is it running on 100% renewable energy, but the Danish data center is doing something positive with the extra heat their equipment generates.

Apple has announced that it will be spending €1.7B ($1.92B) on two new European data centers, each of which will be among the largest in the world at 166,000 square metres (1.8M square feet)–three times larger than the company’s North Carolina facility.

One will be in Ireland, the other in Denmark, with each set to begin operations in 2017. Apple says that the facilities will provide online services across Europe, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iMessage, Apple Maps and Siri.

We are grateful for Apple’s continued success in Europe and proud that our investment supports communities across the continent,”...

Free-to-play games often look appealing, but it's difficult to know at a glance whether the business model is insidious and fun ruining, or reasonable and worth pumping a few bucks into. With Freemium Field Test, we'll take a recent free-to-play iOS game, put it through its paces, and let you know if it's really worth your time (and money).

Thanks to the new deal inked between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures, we'll soon be able to see Spider-Man and The Avengers battle alongside each other on the big screen. And quite likely against each other, if the wall-crawler's first appearance comes in Captain America: Civil War next year, as expected.

As nifty as Apple’s CarPlay technology is – and promises to be – some auto makers seem slow to pick it up and run with it.

Despite being among the first automakers to sign on with Apple’s CarPlay initiative, Toyota is reportedly planning to stick with its own in-house infotainment system for the foreseeable future.

“We may all eventually wind up [with CarPlay or Android Auto], but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions,” Toyota spokesperson John Hanson told the New York Times. Hanson limited his comments to the U.S. market, and while Apple’s iPhone remains wildly popular in Toyota’s home country of Japan, it does not seem likely that the stance will change across the Pacific.

Ford, another early CarPlay partner, has chosen the opposite approach and will add support for both CarPlay and Android Auto. The carmaker aims to...

Apple on Monday announced a multi-billion euro data center project that will add new state-of-the-art facilities in County Galway, Ireland and Denmark's Jutland peninsula to the company's roster in 2017, with both locations powered exclusively by renewable energy.

Sunday February 22

The Elgato Thunderbolt 2 Dock is perfect for connecting everything to your MacBook at once. Using the included 50 cm Thunderbolt cable to connect your MacBook to one of two Thunderbolt ports on the Dock, you then have access to a built-in HDMI port capable of driving a display with up to 4K resolution and three SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports. Add access to other Thunderbolt displays and devices through the remaining Thunderbolt 2 port.

Despite being among the first automakers to sign on with Apple's CarPlay initiative, Japanese marque Toyota is reportedly planning to stick with its own in-house infotainment system for the foreseeable future.

Just in time for the Academy Awards, Apple on Sunday released a new TV commercial focusing on the filmmaking process featuring footage captured on the latest iPad Air 2 and a voiceover by acclaimed Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Quickens the pace of Find and Replace and provides a variety of fixes and improvements. ($99 new, free update, 83.8 MB)

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Pro edition adds new Inspectors pane, which unifies several previous panes to deliver page properties, See Also returns, and objects. (Free/$4.95/$49.95, free updates)

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

MacTech Magazine has been around for 30 years, bringing information to Apple techs, consultants, and support personnel since the mid-1980s. Associated with the magazine are a number of MacTech events, including the flagship MacTech Conference. For 2015, editor-in-chief and publisher of MacTech Magazine Neil Ticktin has announced that the company will host one-day MacTech Pro events to be held in nine cities across the United States.

Each MacTech Pro event will be a single-track seminar based in a hotel, geared to Apple support professionals. Ticktin notes that event topics for 2015 include:

On the day of the annual Academy Awards ceremony, Apple has begun airing a new iPad Air advertisement highlighting how the tablet is used in the filmmaking industry. The new video advertisement is narrated with excerpts from notable movie director Martin Scorsese’s 2014 commencement speech at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. The video, embedded below, is accompanied by a website highlighting specific stories of the iPad being used to make movies. These video stories were actually filmed and edited on iPads. The new website also discusses key video planning, filming, and editing applications for the iPad such as Final Draft, Garageband (but not the consumer-focused...

Android Wear is great, but if you’re an iOS user, it looks like the Apple Watch is going to be your only option for a while. Google has yet to make any of Android Wear’s functionality compatible with Apple’s operating system, and it doesn’t look like they plan to do so any time soon. But that’s not stopping one developer, Mohammad Abu-Garbeyyeh, from hacking Android Wear to at least support notifications from iOS devices.

While one might presume that this requires a jailbroken device to work, that’s actually not true. According to the video description, it works the same way a Pebble does, using Apple’s official APIs to send notifications over...

Academy Awards are chosen using two different systems, one for Best Picture and one for all the rest of the awards. The non-Best Picture awards go to the nominee with the most votes. Simple. But the Best Picture voting is a whole ‘nother thing. I mean, crazy. Read on for the details.

Saturday February 21

On Oscar night the usually car-clogged streets of Hollywood fall silent because everyone is at a viewing party or, if they’re very lucky, sliding into a dress by Dior or slipping on a tuxedo en route to the big show.

The streets aren’t entirely empty: countless limousines are zipping all over town, then making their way to the Dolby Theatre, more than a dozen blocks surrounding Hollywood Boulevard closed to all other traffic as the purring cars patiently wait to drop off their clients.

Parking’s as difficult as a diva at the best of times in Hollywood, so where do hundreds and hundreds of limos – and their suited and booted chauffeurs – go to wait until they have to pick up again?

Nobody sent in a Caturday picture for today, so I went to my personal archive and found a photo from last month with one of my cats peering from the side of my iMac. This is Merry, who is 10 months old now and looking more like a full-grown cat every day. She had snuggled up near my iMac and was being quite sweet, so I just had to take a picture of her.

Have a picture of your cat soaking up the good vibes of an Apple product? Tell us the back story behind your kitty's photo on the Apple World Today contact page. We don't accept inbound attachments, so please host the photo on Dropbox, Flickr, iPhoto, etc... and then include the link in your message.

A scratch behind the ears and big thank you to my sweet companion Merry.

9to5 Mac reports that In an effort to eliminate bugs from upcoming iOS versions ahead of their general releases, Apple plans to launch the first-ever public beta program for the iOS operating system, according to multiple people briefed on the plans. Following the successful launch of the OS X Public Beta program with OS X Yosemite last year, Apple intends to release the upcoming iOS 8.3 as a public beta via the company’s existing AppleSeed program in mid-March, according to the sources. The article goes on to say Like the early iOS 8 developers builds, the public betas will include a dedicated app that allows users to report bugs to Apple. The main goal of the iOS beta program will be a more reliable and widely tested operating system by the time of the wider consumer launch, as Apple has come under fire for lack of quality control in iOS 8. Launching public beta versions of iOS will also reduce the demand for unauthorized sales of beta downloads from developer accounts, which...

9to5 Mac reports that In an effort to eliminate bugs from upcoming iOS versions ahead of their general releases, Apple plans to launch the
first-ever public beta program for the iOS operating system, according to multiple people briefed on the plans. Following the successful launch of the OS X Public Beta program with OS X Yosemite last year, Apple intends to release the upcoming iOS 8.3 as a public beta via the company’s existing AppleSeed program in mid-March, according to the sources. The article goes on to say Like the early iOS 8 developers builds, the public betas will include a dedicated app that allows users to report bugs to Apple.

The main goal of the iOS beta program will be a more reliable and widely tested operating system by the time of the wider consumer launch, as Apple has come under fire for lack of quality control in iOS 8. Launching public beta versions of iOS will also reduce the demand for unauthorized sales of beta downloads from developer...

Speaking to a group of reporters on Friday, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) superintendent Ramon C. Cortines said that the city can't afford to buy a computer for every student. The statement comes after intense controversy over a $1.3 billion initiative launched by Cortines' predecessor, former superintendent John Deasy, in which every student was supposed to be given an iPad loaded with content from educational publisher Pearson.

"I don’t believe we can afford a device for every student,” Cortines told the Los Angeles Times, “Education shouldn’t become the gimmick of the year.” Cortines added that LAUSD had never made a definitive plan for how teachers would have used the iPads during instruction, nor had it planned how it was going to pay for the tablets over time.

Spoiler alert, best bet is to make a reliable backup of your Mac, enable FileVault encryption, use a password everywhere you can and use a different password at every opportunity. This is worth reading.

L!ber8's Tago Arc is aimed at the fashion conscious or those who like to use their jewelry to tell the world a little more about themselves. It has an e-ink screen, which is controlled using an NFC-enabled smartphone -- sorry, iPhone owners -- to let wearers switch up the design on the fly. Ordinary users can purchase a variety of looks, while budding Stella McCartneys can create their own. It's a modern henna tattoo for people who are smart enough to not let some stranger on a street corner etch a doodle on their arm.

Friday February 20

For iPhone users seeking a wrist-worn fitness tracker with GPS, heart rate monitoring, and multiple-day battery life, the Fitbit Surge is a good "tweener" device -- not quite a smartwatch, but much more functional than a basic wearable.

Apple will expand its support capabilities for Beats by Dre hardware products, like headphones and speakers, next week by launching web-based chat support, according to sources. Customers in need of support for their Beats devices will be able to instant message with a support representative via Apple’s support website beginning on Monday, February 23rd. In January, Apple began moving Beats phone-based support wholly in-house after still using the headphone maker’s outsourced support for most of last year. Apple began servicing Beats products in its retail stores late last year.

Braven makes some of the most sturdy Bluetooth speakers I've tested, but it's the sound quality that makes them one of my favorite brands for portable listening. The new Braven 805 (US$199.99) is billed as a "HD" wireless speaker, implying that the sound quality is pretty darned good. Read on for a review of this speaker, then enter for a chance to win one from Apple World Today and Braven.

But the kicker here is that the Fire TV actually works. My Apple TV has been plagued by poor performance and repeated crashes—sometimes right in the middle of a show. Every time that’s happened, it’s been faster to switch inputs to my Fire TV and resume the video there than it has been to wait for the Apple TV to finish its glacial restarting process.

I found this really interesting. It’s certainly not a good sign that the Apple TV has such poor performance when watching a program. If it was caused by Dan’s Internet, then the Fire TV wouldn’t work either, but it does. I don’t have many problems with my Apple TV, except when watching the NHL station—that usually sucks really bad.

In an announcement posted to Apple's developer portal on Friday, the notified app makers that all Mac App Store submissions will soon be restricted from using garbage collection in favor of the Automatic Reference Counting (ARC) compiler feature.

Apple has announced on its developer site that apps submitted to the Mac App Store starting on May 1st will no longer be allowed to incorporate garbage collection, which was deprecated in OS X 10.8. Instead, developers will be required to switch to ARC, which was introduced in 10.7.

This change affects both new apps and updates to existing ones. Developers who need to make the switch to ARC can do so using the migration utility in Xcode. Apple also has a reference document to help make the transition.

Despite speculation to the contrary, Apple does in fact plan to sell an array of bands as separate accessories for the Apple Watch at launch, according to sources. So far Apple has only shown the Watch in pre-assembled collections, which reduces their potential for customization, but our sources say that Apple’s retail outlets will be stocked on day one with individual straps so customers can easily mix and match the looks of their Watches.

While Apple has hinted at millions of combinations of Apple Watch when considering the various watch faces and interchangeable strap combos, up until now we’ve not had confirmation that straps would be available to purchase separately alongside the Apple Watch at launch.

My thanks to Edovia for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week. Screens is a beautiful, yet powerful VNC client for iOS and Mac that lets you connect back to your computer from the comfort of your living room, the corner coffee shop or anywhere in the world.

Until the end of the month, we’re happy to offer 20% off Screens for Mac to the readers of The Loop. Simply use this link to save!

Jim’s Note: I’ve used Screens for Mac and iOS since they were first released. I love them both.

Top Hat quickly answers the one question that indie developers have every morning: How well did our apps do in the App Store yesterday?

Top Hat lives in the Yosemite menu bar and shows up-to-date daily sales figures for your apps. Revenue from In-App Purchases is aggregated to give you a single total for each app. Weekly figures can be inspected by holding ⌥ as you click the Top Hat icon.

A great new app from Oisin Prendiville, the man behind Castro podcasting app, Unread and Tokens. I’m buying this.

One of the first emails we received from a reader on February 9 when Apple World Today launched was from a man who wondered if we could report some of the issues that a number of people were having with MacBook Pros sold between February 2011 and December 2013. He pointed us to Apple's support pages, where a huge discussion of the problem had been raging for years. Well, that gentleman will be happy to know that starting today, Apple is offering a free fix.

Apparently, only a small percentage of all of the MacBook Pros made during that period are affected with the problem, which manifests itself as distorted or missing video and random restarts. The devices include 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros manufactured in 2011, and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros from mid 2012 to early 2013.

Think your MacBook Pro is one of the "bad apples"? You can check by using Apple's...

I'm trying to manage StorNext 5.0 SAN volumes permissions using the Mavericks Server with Open Directory and File Sharing. My configuration is solid until I reach the point of adding the StorNext 5 volumes in the Server File Sharing. I can add the SAN volume to be shared, but I am not able to apply ACLs. I get a message stating "Failed to save access control list. Make sure that access control lists are enabled on the volume."

I have enabled the "Enforce ACLs" feature on the M440 MDCs. Still File Sharing is unable to apply ACLs to the SAN volumes.

I guess I'm am missing an important element in this configuration, but I don't know what it is or how to resolve it. Any insight is welcome.

The latest edition of iLounge Weekly, our weekly newsletter covering all things iLounge, will be arriving in subscribers’ inboxes early next week. iLounge Weekly is a summary of the week’s best news, reviews, and feature articles we’ve published, and it also features giveaways and accessory discount offers from various companies. There’s still plenty of time to sign up and receive this week’s edition — just use the simple form…

Q: Okay, I did an ‘oops’ with my iPhone when I was trying to print a single page of a big PDF using AirPrint, and I ended up sending the whole stupid thing to the printer. It’s 385 pages in all, and now I can’t figure out how to make it stop. I’ve tried closing the app, even rebooting my iPhone, but when it comes back up, it starts printing out again. I’ve had to keep the printer turned off, since every time I turn…

Live on MacVoices -- it's host Chuck Joiner and the three founders of Apple World Today. Join Chuck, Kelly, Dave and Steve for nearly 49 minutes of talk about the site and what we hope to accomplish.

If you're not up to seeing all of our smiling faces or wish to subscribe to Chuck's excellent podcast, you can subscribe here. Many thanks to Chuck for not only inviting us to be on the show this week, but for MacVoices as well -- it's truly one of the best Apple-related podcasts on the web.

Here’s a thought: Assume that the 18k gold Apple Watch Edition is several thousand dollars, as some people are currently predicting. How will Apple deliver that piece of news — which hasn’t officially been confirmed before, and remains the subject of increasingly wild speculation — to the public?

Depending on your perspective, a high price won’t be bad news for people who expect their jewelry to carry four- or five-digit price tags. But it’s going to be hard to explain why the Apple Watch Edition is priced so far apart from the entry level Apple Watch Sport… or most of Apple’s other products for that matter. Fake gold or not, golden iPhones starts at $99, and iPads at $399 or $499, just like non-gold ones.

While Apple has already started telling the story of what the Apple Watch will do for people that wear it, it has barely told the story on its own of how much it will cost and why. I believe that detail alone is worthy of a second Apple Watch...

Hedge funds, mutual funds, and other large investors continue to make Apple a core component of their portfolios, with over 2,000 individual funds holding shares worth more than $380 billion at the close of 2014, by far the most for any U.S. company.

MacBook Pro owners experiencing video problems are eligible for a free fix from Apple as of Friday.

Apple said a “small percentage” of MacBook Pros sold between February 2011 and December 2013 are experiencing issues with distorted video (or none at all) and out-of-the-blue system restarts. The problems affect 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros produced in 2011 and 15-inch Retina MacBook Pros produced from mid–2012 to early 2013.

If you’re experiencing any of the above issues, check to see if your MacBook Pro matches one of the models by using Apple’s “check your coverage” tool. Then back up your data, pack up your MacBook, and take the computer to an Apple Store or a repair center authorized by Apple. Apple outlined the repair process in further detail here.

This week’s roundup of apps includes an offering to turn your iPad into a Mac-compatible “professional grade graphics tablet.” Plus, games, video, and more.

Astropad

The free Astropad app promises to turn your iPad into a “professional-grade graphics tablet”—similar, users say, to Wacom’s Cintiq hardware. Download the app (and a companion app to your Mac) and you can use graphics programs, like Photoshop, on your tablet while the results display on your desktop computer. (See Astropad’s video for a demonstration.) It works over wireless and USB, turning your Mac and iPad into “one connected workspace.”

Google is fighting a proposed amendment to Rule 41 of the U.S. Criminal Code that might allow authorities to hack into computers abroad. The amendment seeks to empower a magistrate in a district where activities related to a crime may have occurred to issue a warrant for remote search of computers, as well as seizure or copying of their files, when a target computer's physical location is unknown, or when multiple computers in several districts are used simultaneously to carry out complex criminal schemes.

Following up on its previous high-tech standing desk, the Stir Kinetic Desk, the Apple-inspired design company Stir has recently released the Stir Kinetic Desk M1 ($2,990), a new option that drops the price while adapting a more contemporary, curvy design, with rounded waterfall edges. Available in a black or white finish, the desk is CNC-machined, providing a seamless finish, with a powder coat applied over the engineered wood. Like its sibling, the M1 packs in quite a high-tech suite of features, however, that go beyond mere aesthetic appeal, providing smart, cloud-connected features for adjusting the desk and integrating with your Mac, iPhone, and other accessories....

The new Sling TV Internet service provides many basic paid channels for a low monthly fee, and makes them available just about everywhere. Is it enough to cut the cable cord or drop satellite TV? Yes, for some.

Read the full article at TidBITS, the oldest continuously published technology publication on the Internet. To get a full-text RSS feed, help support our work and become a TidBITS member! Members also enjoy an ad-free version of our Web site, email delivery of individual articles, the ability to make long comments with live links, and discounts on Take Control orders and other Apple-related products.

Remember Apple's public beta program for OS X Yosemite? By all accounts, it was quite successful, providing many Mac users who aren't developers with the opportunity to try out the latest desktop operating system and also increasing the size of the pool of testers. 9to5Mac is reporting that Apple's considering a similar public test of the upcoming iOS 8.3 beta (due in another month or so) and iOS 9, which will presumably arrive later this year.

Our take on the news: This is, of course, all rumor at this time -- it's coming from 9to5Mac, after all -- but it makes sense that Apple would want to make beta versions of iOS available to a wider variety of users and devices in order to improve the quality of the final product. While others might disagree, I feel that OS X Yosemite has been very stable and that the large public beta was probably a...

Les Paul’s personal 1954 Les Paul Custom “Black Beauty” sold to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay last night for $335,500. According to the New York Times, Irsay’s guitar curator, Christopher McKinney, placed the bid at the February 19, 2015 auction held by Guernsey’s in New York City.

I would love to have this guitar. If only I had a few hundred grand laying around.

Jim Dalrymple looks at the key to Apple’s success. Is it design, software, hardware? Maybe none of those things; Matt Gemmell talks about the colors of his various computer bags—It’s okay to skip safe; Darren Murph looks at where the DSLR is now that so many people are using an iPhone; Joe Caiati has a look at the origins of his writing; Steven Aquino has a wonderful story on how music and the iPod helped people with memories; With so many recordings of the same classical piece, Kirk McElhearn is still searching for the perfect recording, but does it exist?; Darren Murph looks at mobile data and how everything is being commoditized in mobile; and Tim Schock talks about the resurgence of the cassette… really.

In 1959, Xerox released the “914”—the first easy-to-use photocopier. The culmination of more than 20 years of experimentation, it was a much cleaner, “dry” process. The copier created an electrostatic image of a document on a rotating metal drum, and used it to transfer toner—ink in a powdered format—to a piece of paper, which would then be sealed in place by heat. It was fast, cranking out a copy in as little as seven seconds. When the first desk-size, 648-pound machines were rolled out to corporate customers—some of whom had to remove doors to install these behemoths—the era of copying began.

Or more accurately, the explosion of copying began. Xerox expected customers would make about 2,000 copies a month—but users easily made 10,000 a month, and some as many as 100,000. Before the 914 machine, Americans made 20 million copies a year, but by 1966 Xerox had boosted the total to 14 billion.

I love it when one of the tech press -- Daring Fireball's John Gruber in this case -- slaps down the mainstream media for their idiocy. In this case, the "topic" the media was tossing around was that the upcoming Apple Watch was going to be shipping without some of the health-tracking features that had allegedly been promised at the reveal last fall. Nothing could be further from the truth.

“They were going for some super groundbreaking and innovative health tracking stuff. Heartbeat tracking, stress monitoring. In their testing it wasn’t filling that sort of void that’s in the market for fitness apps right now.

After the gala announcement event in September at which Apple introduced Apple Watch and whatever last year’s iPhone was, I ran into SlashGear editor-in-chief Vincent Nguyen in the private hands-on area Apple had set up for select members of the media. I’ve known Vincent for years from various Apple events, and I always enjoy his perspective. I was actually looking around for him this time, though, because I really wanted to hear his take on Apple Watch. Vincent is a watch guy — he knows the watch industry, and his taste is excellent.

We greeted each other, walked in, and started staring, close-up, at the lineup. When we got to the Edition models, Vincent said, with some excitement, “This is going to cost $20,000.”

I’d already started thinking that the Edition models would cost thousands, plural, but $20,000 struck me as a price from Bananas Town. Vincent’s reply was something to the effect of, “Try to find a good...

Just one day after T-Mobile CEO John Legere announced the wireless provider surpassed Sprint to become the number three carrier in the country, Sprint today announced a new aggressive shared data plan that it says offers better value compared to T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon.

The new $90/month Family Share plan offers 12GB of data for up to 10 lines with unlimited talk and text (the 10 lines offer lasts through March 31, 2016). The plan compares favorably to similar options from the other guys (as pictured in the chart from Sprint above), but there are a few caveats.

As the 19th century teetered into the 20th, the clank of typewriter keys went from solo to symphony. They were the weapon of choice for professional writers, the business elite, people with things to say and the need to say them quickly. They unintentionally provided a passageway for women to tread into workplaces from which they had long been banished, and greatly expedited the rate at which human thought could be translated into ink. An 1867 issue of Scientific American marveled at the “machine by which it is assumed that man may print his thoughts twice as fast as he can write them.”

Using a typewriter at times feels more like playing piano than jotting down notes, a percussive exercise in expressing thought that is both tortuous and rewarding.

Great story about a dying technology and the men who still service it. While I am nostalgic about typewriters and love their look and feel, there’s no way I’d ever want to go back to using one on a daily...

Well, it looks like Apple has heard your complaints about iOS 8, because 8.3 is reportedly getting a public beta release next month. That means anyone who wants to can get early access to the latest version of iOS in the hopes that software will be thoroughly debugged before its official release.

iOS 8.3 includes a few neat features, like wireless CarPlay, new emoji (!), and easier login for Google users with two-factor authentication enabled. The third public beta will be released at the same time as the third developer version, but 9to5Mac reports that only 100,000 lucky testers will get a chance to take 8.3 for an early spin. iOS 8.2, which is being readied for the Apple Watch launch, will not enter public beta, 9to5Mac notes. iOS 9 will open up a public beta program after WWDC this...

It’s time to save some of your hard-earned money with our Daily Deals, featuring exclusive deals for AWT readers, hardware discounts and our own handpicked iOS and OS X sales. All prices are USD and subject to change. Please check prices before you purchase as some deals may expire quickly.

AWT’s Daily Deals

Typed [OS X; On sale for $15.99, down from $19.99] AppleWorld.Today is pleased to offer an exclusive deal on Typed by Realmac. Typed is a stunning new Markdown editor and writing app for Mac, and the first that improves your focus so you can create great content. Typed makes writing for the web incredibly easy, and its Zen Mode features relaxing soundtracks that help you concentrate.

Typed is available for US$19, but AWT readers can save 20% off the retail price when they use they use...

Apple plans to begin releasing new versions of iOS as public betas, according to a new report by 9to5Mac. Intended to help eliminate bugs from upcoming iOS versions before general release, the model will follow the one used by Apple for OS X Yosemite last summer — a public beta cycle that will begin following the early developer betas, running in tandem with the developer program up until general availability of the new operating system. The report…

After an apparently successful public beta program for OS X Yosemite, Apple is rumored to be considering an expansion of that initiative that would see forthcoming versions of its mobile operating system -- beginning with iOS 9 -- subjected to the same assessment.

According to a new report from 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman, Apple will soon begin releasing public beta builds of iOS to consumers in the hopes of tracking down and squashing more bugs. The program will reportedly begin with iOS 8.3, the first build of which has already been released to developers, and will extend to iOS 9 after Apple introduces it at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference.

The prospective launch of Google's new YouTube Kids app could be a boon for families with young children, but those invested in Apple's iOS ecosystem find themselves on the outside looking in as the video site reportedly will not support the iPhone or iPad at launch.

1998 was still a low point for Apple. Steve Jobs had just returned, had some new plans in place, but the triumphant arc of new products that would once again change the world had not yet begun.

The Chronicle of Higher Education sent two reporters, one a seasoned reporter and one fresh out of college, to a conference for college computing administrators to grab some time with Steve Jobs. Follow the link to read about the interview and listen to the whole thing.

Here are some of the best free apps, app updates and new apps that have landed in the App Store recently. All app prices are USD and subject to change. Some deals may expire quickly, so grab them while you can.

Apps Now Free

History for iOS [iPhone; Now free, down from $0.99] History for iOS is the App Store's top resource for everything iOS. The app contains in-depth information on every iOS release Apple has pushed to the public.

Japan Display is in talks with Apple about the possibility of manufacturing smartphone screens, Reuters reports. Citing a “person familiar with the situation,” the report reveals that Japan Display and Apple are presently negotiating, with Japan Display looking for Apple to carry the majority of the 200 billion yen ($1.7 billion) investment in building a new display manufacturing plant. The discussions are confidential, but a successful…

I can’t comment on the Nest Protect smoke alarm. I don’t own one, have never had to set one up or disable one. But this video feels like the opening of a science fiction movie on the order of Alien or Terminator.

In an effort to eliminate bugs from upcoming iOS versions ahead of their general releases, Apple plans to launch the first-ever public beta program for the iOS operating system, according to multiple people briefed on the plans. Following the successful launch of the OS X Public Beta program with OS X Yosemite last year, Apple intends to release the upcoming iOS 8.3 as a public beta via the company’s existing AppleSeed program in mid-March, according to the sources. This release will match the third iOS 8.3 beta for developers, which is planned for release the same week. Apple then expects to debut iOS 9 at its June Worldwide Developer Conference, with a public beta release during the summer, and final release in the fall…

What a difference a couple of weeks can make. We knew on February 5th that Apple was offering quarter-million dollar signing bonuses to Tesla engineers to persuade them to jump ship, but the idea that the company planned to make a car was just a vague rumor. Fast-forward a fortnight and it’s now being treated as established fact.

Our own exclusive reporting on the sheer range of automotive hires by Apple makes it clear that the company is, at the very least, seriously investigating the possibility, with a 1,000-strong team reportedly approved by Tim Cook. And while we need to bear in mind the cautionary note in ...

Since the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus last fall, we’ve noticed that Sprint subsidiary Virgin Mobile USA has offered limited-to-no stock on its iPhone lineup with “out of stock” messages on each of their iOS device and seemingly no plans to replenish inventory. Specifically, the pre-paid carrier went head first into the holiday season without any iPhone inventory for shoppers.

Virgin later confirmed that it had no specific plans to carry the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus at the time, and now the prepaid carrier has completely scrubbed the entire iPhone lineup from its online store.

According to a Bloomberg article, Apple is pushing its development team to have the car in production in that time frame, albeit Apple has yet to comment on the story and sources have remained anonymous.

Apple Car has all but pushed Apple Watch out of the headlines in the last two weeks. Successive reports from mainstream outlets have claimed Apple has a team as large as a thousand people working on the project, that it is codenamed “Titan,” and that Apple has hired any number of people from the automotive industry.

On Thursday, it was discovered that Apple has been hiring battery experts from at least one company, A123 Systems. That company has sued Apple over the nature of its poaching. Apple has also apparently been targeting battery experts at LG, Samsung, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Johnson Controls.

AmiMoJo writes: Apple has just launched a MacBook Pro Repair Extension Program for Video Issues to provide out-of-warranty repairs for MacBook Pros and Retina MacBook Pros sold between February of 2011 and December of 2013. Symptoms of affected computers include "distorted or scrambled video on the computer screen," "no video on the computer screen (or external display) even though the computer is on," and unexpected restarts. Some users have been complaining about 2011 MacBook Pro GPU issues since shortly after the systems launched. Those complaints continued for well over three years—outside of the warranty window even if you bought AppleCare, at least if you bought the systems at launch—and were more recently the cause of a class-action lawsuit.

PCalc is a full-featured, scriptable scientific calculator with support for hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations, as well as an RPN mode, programmable functions, and an extensive set of unit... Read more

FileZilla 3.10.2 - Fast and reliable FTP...

FileZilla (ported from Windows) is a fast and reliable FTP client and server with lots of useful features and an intuitive interface.
Version 3.10.2:
Note: Now requires a 64-bit Intel processor.... Read more

The Hit List 1.1.11 - Advanced reminder...

The Hit List manages the daily chaos of your modern life. It's easy to learn - it's as easy as making lists. And it's powerful enough to let you plan, then forget, then act when the time is right.... Read more

Bartender 1.2.32 - Organize your menu ba...

Bartender lets you organize your menu bar apps.
Features:
Lets you tidy your menu bar apps how you want.
See your menu bar apps when you want.
Hide the apps you need to run, but do not need to... Read more

ClamXav 2.7.5 - Free virus checker, base...

ClamXav is a free virus checker for OS X. It uses the tried, tested, and very popular ClamAV open source antivirus engine as a back end.
I hope you like and use ClamXav a lot and that it helps keep... Read more

xScope 4.1.2 - Onscreen graphic measurem...

xScope is powerful set of tools that are ideal for measuring, inspecting, and testing on-screen graphics and layouts. Its tools float above your desktop windows and can be accessed via a toolbar,... Read more

MacFamilyTree 7.3.3 - Create and explore...

MacFamilyTree gives genealogy a facelift: it's modern, interactive, incredibly fast, and easy to use. We're convinced that generations of chroniclers would have loved to trade in their genealogy... Read more

Skype 7.5.0.738 - Voice-over-internet ph...

Skype allows you to talk to friends, family and co-workers across the Internet without the inconvenience of long distance telephone charges. Using peer-to-peer data transmission technology, Skype... Read more

PushPal 3.0 - Mirror Android notificatio...

PushPal is a client for Pushbullet, which automatically shows you all of your phone's notifications right on your computer. This means you can see who's calling or read text messages even if your... Read more

At this point it’s pretty safe to say that no MOBA is going to dethrone Dota 2 and League of Legends anytime soon. After all, if Batman can’t do it, nobody can. However, with a genre as popular and profitable as this one, there’s still room for... | Read more »

Final February Fun at 148Apps
How do you know what apps are worth your time and money? Just look to the review team at 148Apps. We sort through the chaos and find the apps you’re looking for. The ones we love become Editor’s Choice, standing out... | Read more »

GDC 2015 – Does Not Commute is Definitel...

GDC 2015 – Does Not Commute is Definitely a Game You Should Keep an Eye on
Posted by Rob Rich on March 2nd, 2015 [ permalink ]
We were teased about Mediocre Games’ (Smash Hit,
| Read more »

F84 Games & POW! Announce Stan Lee V...

F84 Games has announced that it is working with legendary comic creator Stan Lee and POW! Entertainment to produce Stan Lee’s Hero Command. The game will be a action adventure of heroic proportions.
| Read more »

Setlyst Keeps Your Set Straight So You C...

Setlyst Keeps Your Set Straight So You Can Focus On Rocking Out.
Posted by Jessica Fisher on March 2nd, 2015 [ permalink ]
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
| Read more »

Space is Vast, So Space Agency Has a Vas...

Space is Vast, So Space Agency Has a Vast New Update!
Posted by Jessica Fisher on March 2nd, 2015 [ permalink ]
Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
| Read more »

Size DOES Matter Review

Size DOES Matter Review
By Campbell Bird on March 2nd, 2015
Our Rating: :: HARD TO BEATUniversal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
This rhythm game has a unique control scheme and performance system that make it feel like a true... | Read more »

The first ever action 3D card battler Al...

On the other hand, you probably haven’t played an action 3D card battler – until now. Step forward, All Star Legion.
All Star Legion is a 3D QTE-based action RPG card battler, but fear not – the game itself isn’t as convoluted as its description.... | Read more »

Travel Back to the 1980s With the Making...

Headup Games has released a hilarious making of video for its upcoming title, Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic. The game is a RPG/Roguelike where you control three heroes set to save the township of Pixton from an evil cult called The Sons of Dawn.... | Read more »

Price Scanner via MacPrices.net

Sale! 15-inch 2.2GHz Retina MacBook Pro for $...

Best Buy has the 15″ 2.2GHz Retina MacBook Pro on sale for $1774.99 $1799.99, or $225 off MSRP. Choose free home shipping or free local store pickup (if available). Price valid for online orders... Read more

27-inch 3.5GHz 5K iMac in stock today and on...

B&H Photo has the 27″ 3.5GHz 5K iMac in stock today and on sale for $2299 including free shipping plus NY sales tax only. Their price is $200 off MSRP, and it’s the lowest price available for... Read more

Apple Launches Free Web-Based Pages and Other...

Apple’s new Web-only access to iWork productivity apps is a free level of iCloud service available to anyone, including people who don’t own or use Apple devices. The service includes access to Apple... Read more

Survey Reveals Solid State Disk (SSD) Technol...

In a recent SSD technology use survey, Kroll Ontrack, a firm specializing in data recovery, found that while nearly 90 percent of respondents leverage the performance and reliability benefits of SSD... Read more

Save up to $600 with Apple refurbished Mac Pr...

The Apple Store is offering Apple Certified Refurbished Mac Pros for up to $600 off the cost of new models. An Apple one-year warranty is included with each Mac Pro, and shipping is free. The... Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook will deliver the George Washington University’s Commencement address to GWU grads on May 17, at which time he will also be awarded an honorary doctorate of public service from the... Read more

Apple restocks refurbished Mac minis for up t...

The Apple Store has restocked Apple Certified Refurbished 2014 Mac minis, with models available starting at $419. Apple’s one-year warranty is included with each mini, and shipping is free:
- 1.4GHz... Read more

Walmart has the 16GB iPad Air 2 WiFi on sale for $446.99 on their online store for a limited time. Choose free shipping or free local store pickup (if available). Sale price for online orders only,... Read more

Jobs Board

*Apple* Solutions Consultant - Retail Sales...

**Job Summary** As an Apple Solutions Consultant (ASC) you are the link between our customers and our products. Your role is to drive the Apple business in a retail
Read more

*Apple* Pay Automation Engineer - iOS System...

**Job Summary** At Apple , great ideas have a way of becoming great products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring passion and dedication to your job
Read more

Sr. Technical Services Consultant, *Apple*...

**Job Summary** Apple Professional Services (APS) has an opening for a senior technical position that contributes to Apple 's efforts for strategic and transactional
Read more

Event Director, *Apple* Retail Marketing -...

…This senior level position is responsible for leading and imagining the Apple Retail Team's global engagement strategy and team. Delivering an overarching brand
Read more

*Apple* Pay - Site Reliability Engineer - Ap...

**Job Summary** Imagine what you could do here. At Apple , great ideas have a way of becoming great products, services, and customer experiences very quickly. Bring
Read more

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